Salcombe Crabfest 2024: All You Need to Know

Salcombe’s crab fishing industry is coming out of its shell from 10am on Sunday 5th May to celebrate Crabfest 2024, the harbour town’s vibrant festival of all-things crab and seafood related. Like previous events, Crabfest 2024 will take place on Island Street and across the breadth of picturesque Salcombe.

Dedicated to the famously flavoursome Salcombe brown crab, Salcombe Crabfest features a brilliant line-up of cookery demos from award-winning chefs, crab picking masterclasses, quality food and drink stalls, live music and culinary competitions.

The history (so far!) of Salcombe Crabfest

With the promise of a day of delicious local seafood and the buzz of anticipation in the air, visitors and exhibitors gathered in Salcombe on May Day in 2016 for the town’s first ever Crabfest. The event was buzzing and over 3,000 people came! It is still just as popular, with similar numbers of people in Salcombe expected to join the fun in 2024.

Crabfest’s award-winning chefs

Proudly sharing the stage and showing us all how it’s done, are some of the finest local chefs South Devon has to offer…

Matt Tebbutt
Taking centre stage this year is renowned chef and presenter of BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen and Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped, Matt Tebbutt. Matt’s culinary journey started at Leith’s School of Food and Wine, followed by a valuable traineeship with Marco Pierre White. Matt’s commitment to simple, fuss-free, hearty dishes forms the basis of everything he does, so be sure not to miss his cooking demonstration in the Chefs’ Demo Marquee which promises to be a fun, inspiring and passionate experience.

Freddy Bird
With experience working at multiple Michelin-Starred restaurants, including his recent venture Little French in Bristol, who better to learn from than Freddy Bird? Freddy has appeared on television screens plenty of times, including Sunday Brunch, Saturday Kitchen, and most recently, Remarkable Places to Eat with Fred Sirieix and Michelle Roux Jr.

Jane Baxter
Seafood lovers are in for a treat, with renowned South Devon chef and food writer Jane Baxter preparing some of her favourite seafood dishes. Read our blog Meet Jane Baxter where we find out more about this brilliant chef.

Mitch Tonks
Mitch Tonks is at the helm of eight Rockfish restaurants in the South West, and also The Seahorse in Dartmouth. Firmly anchored around changing the way people experience seafood, through his restaurants, an online seafood market, and a range of tinned British seafood, Mitch has truly shone a light on the South West’s exceptional fish scene. With over 25 years’ experience as a chef (and also author of seven cookbooks), Mitch is extremely well versed in demonstrating how to cook a sumptuous fish recipe.

Ben Tonks
The son of seafood aficionado and Rockfish founder Mitch Tonks, Ben is head chef at the Michelin-Starred restaurant The Seahorse in Dartmouth.

Kirk Gosden
Group Head Chef at Rockfish, Kirk will be giving us an opportunity to learn from the best at this year’s Salcombe Crabfest. Rockfish are a Devon and Dorset-based restaurant group, notorious for catching, preparing and serving the freshest fish. They run some of the most popular seafood restaurants in the South West, with Sidmouth, Topsham and Salcombe restaurants coming soon.

Joseph Robinson
Head Chef of Bantham’s Outside, Joseph is renowned for his creative flair that effortlessly balances different elements and techniques to tantalise the taste buds. He has built a solid reputation in the South Devon food scene, with some of his most recognised moments rooted in farmers’ and street markets all of which boast authentic, quality produce.

David Menendez
A close collaborator of Freddy Bird, David is the Spanish food enthusiast behind ingredient importer Mevalco. Mevalco provides high quality Spanish produce to some of the UK’s best chefs and restaurants.

Tom Bunn
Tom has been a chef for over 20 years, specialising in seafood, with a particular passion in linking chefs with top quality foods. Tom has run the Chefs’ Demo Marquee since Crabfest began in 2016 and is a dab hand in all things related to the Salcombe Crabfest.

Giving back to the community

This special event is hosted by the Rotary Club of Salcombe in conjunction with Devon Rum Co, Marchand Petit, Coast & Country Cottages, Rockfish and Twisted. As well as celebrating Salcombe’s historic crab fishing industry, it raises money for important local charities. To date, the festival has raised over £60,000 for local charities and good causes! This year, Salcombe Crabfest is proud to support The Wind Project, a community project run for the benefit of Salcombe and the wider sailing community. Working with local schools and individuals, the aim of The Wind Project is to make sailing more accessible for all, regardless of age or disability.

As a proud sponsor of Salcombe Crabfest, our locally-based team at Coast & Country Cottages will be busy manning our stall throughout the festival – be sure to come and find us and say hello! Like last year, we’ll be providing a fun shell decorating activity for kids.

For adults, we’ll be running the fabulous 2024 Coast & Country Cottages Competition, with the chance to win a holiday voucher and a POSH Hamper filled with local goodies!

Villa 8, Estura, Salcombe

Salcombe Crabfest shows visitors so much about what’s great about Salcombe and South Devon – warm hospitality, care for the community and fantastic local food and drinks from the best the region has to offer. For more ways to spend your time in Salcombe, read our post on The Best Things to do in Salcombe.

Looking for more details about the event? You can download the programme for Crabfest 2024 here.

Thinking of attending Salcombe Crabfest 2024? Coast & Country Cottages offer a range of holiday homes based in a perfect position to enjoy the festivities.

Book your Salcombe holiday now

Photography courtesy of Martyn Norsworthy, the official photographer of Salcombe Crabfest.